It's A Wonder I Don't Drink Heavily

My poor Bryce. He just can't catch a break. He has been through so much in his less than two short years of life. As if our trip to the ER last weekend wasn't bad enough, he was at urgent care this weekend.

Saturday evening we went to a surprise party for my friend Andrea. It was a potluck style dinner at their church, and her husband arranged for one of the girls that runs the nursery on the weekends to come babysit the kids. I was a little uneasy about leaving my kids with someone I didn't know, especially because there were 8 or 9 kids, but I was assured that she was awesome and that I had nothing to worry about. So we left the kids in the nursery and went off to the party. They were going to play on the playground for a while and then have some pizza.

I wanted to go back there every 15 minutes and check on Rylie and Bryce, but I didn't because I knew Rylie would be upset every time I left her. About an hour and a half into the party, I couldn't take it any longer and went to check on them. When I walked in, all the kids were sitting at the table eating, and Bryce had his head down on the table. I had brought a PB&J for him, since he doesn't eat pizza, and half of it was gone. I asked the girl what was wrong with him and she said he was just tired.

As soon as Bryce saw me, he started screaming. I picked him up and immediately knew something was wrong. I could tell he was in pain. I thought maybe his belly didn't feel good because of the way he was contorting his body, but then I smelled poop, so I thought maybe he had diaper rash or something. I waited for the babysitter to finish changing a kid, and then I laid him down. When I pulled his shorts off, I noticed two things that were very upsetting to me. The first was that his diaper weighed like 5 pounds! He obviously hadn't been changed since we got there, and since the diaper was full of pee, the poop was everywhere, including his clothes. The second thing I saw was way worse, though. He had two HUGE welts on both of his inner thighs, just outside of his diaper!

I got that full diaper off and started cleaning him up, and every time I would wipe him he would scream in pain. I had clean shorts for him, but didn't put them on because I figured they would irritate the welts even worse. I assumed that he had been bitten by a bug while they were outside. I was furious. I was mad that he hadn't been changed, and I was mad that she didn't come get me. We packed up and left the party so we could go home and take care of Bryce.

Brian dropped Rylie and I off at home and took Bryce to urgent care. They waited probably an hour and a half before they were seen, and Bryce had fallen asleep by then. The doctor agreed that he was bitten by something and gave him a steroid cream and an anti-bacterial cream. He said that because the reaction was localized, we didn't have to worry about it and he would be fine in a few days.

Brian picked up the prescriptions on the way home and applied them when they got home. Again, Bryce screamed in pain. I held him for a while after that and finally got him to sleep. The swelling had totally gone away by Sunday morning, but his inner thighs are still bright red. You can actually see several different puncture wounds, so we have no idea what got him.

I felt so sorry for my little man! It is one thing when kids cry for attention, and another thing when they are crying because they are in pain. It brings me to tears just thinking about it. It just seems like one thing after another with him, and he shouldn't have to keep going through this crap. I realize that most of this is a normal part of growing up, but I wish all of these issues were a little more spread out, at least. I'm just glad he is OK, and didn't have a more severe allergic reaction to the bites.

I finished off the weekend by going to visit my dad's grave on Father's Day, so that didn't help my stress level. Trust me, I don't dare ask what is going to happen next, because something will. So I'm off to get that drink now. It is 5:00 somewhere, right?